Puzzled about laptop power scheme default settings...

Hi, All,

I am using a Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop, 3.06GHz HT, 1.25G RAM, WinXP.

I have only rarely used my laptop on battery power, and then for short
periods of time, so I have never paid attention to the Power Management
settings.

I have always had my power scheme set to "Maximum Performance" (Dell's
version of "Minimal Power Management"), with no problems.

I will be needing to use my laptop on battery power fairly frequently in the
near future, so I am trying to learn a bit about the Power Management
settings, so I can choose (or configure) the best scheme for me.

I do understand the various settings and options available under the Power
Options Properties, including the integral control of the SpeedStep processor
settings. The default settings for each of the available "schemes" basically
seem logical, BUT...

I have noticed one thing that has me really confused:

I was comparing the default settings for "Running on batteries" for the
various schemes, and all but one of the themes available for my machine shows
a shorter time set to enter "System standby" than for "Turn off hard disks"!

For instance, on my machine the default values for Battery operation are:

Under the "Maximum Performance" scheme, Turn off HD is set to 15 min. and
Standby is set to 5 min.
Under the "Portable/Laptop" scheme, Turn off HD is set to 30 min. and
Standby is set to 25 min.
Under the "Home/Office Desk" scheme, Turn off HD is set to 10 min. and
Standby is set to 5 min.
Under the "Minimum Power Management" scheme, Turn off HD is set to 15 min.
and Standby is set to 5 min.


I THOUGHT I understood what the standby function was all about. Now I'm not
so sure!

What has me confused is: WHY set the time to enter standby SHORTER than the
time to simply stop the disk?

It seems logical to me that the sequence should be display off, then disk
off, then standby, then hibernate. BUT all but one of the ten factory default
power schemes for battery operation on my laptop are set so that the standby
time is SHORTER than the disk off time!

My questions:

1) Why should the system be set to enter standby sooner than turning off the
disk?

2) Shouldn't the system turn off the hard drive automatically upon entering
standby mode?

3) Under what circumstances would the standby mode be bypassed in favor of
simply turning off the disk?

Thanks for any comments or advice. I realy want to understand this!

Ken

KenB;268395 Wrote:
> Hi, All,
>
>
> My questions:
>
> 1) Why should the system be set to enter standby sooner than turning
> off the
> disk?
>
> 2) Shouldn't the system turn off the hard drive automatically upon
> entering
> standby mode?
>
> 3) Under what circumstances would the standby mode be bypassed in favor
> of
> simply turning off the disk?
>
> Thanks for any comments or advice. I realy want to understand this!
>
> Ken

Hi Ken,

My name is Todd and I'm a customer advocate at Dell's corporate
headquarters. My team was designed to reach out to forums and blogs
and help answer some of these questions.

To answer your questions I found a quick explanation of the difference
between Hibernation and Standby that may help you.

Hibernation

Hibernation, which reduces the start time, saves the complete state of
the computer and turns off the power. When you resume from hibernation
the BIOS performs the typical Power On Self Test (POST), and then reads
the hibernation file, Hiberfil.sys, to restore the state of the
computer. Everything that was running when you put the computer in
hibernation is restored.

Standby

In standby, the computer slows down and uses less electrical power.
Programs continue to run in the background although the computer may
appears to be off. The computer "wakes up" when it detects user input.
With some computers, you can press the power button to wake up the
computer.

Note: If your computer experiences a power outage during standby, all
work that you have not saved is lost because the computer is still
running in the background.


Since in Standby mode the system is not actually turned off you
wouldn't want to go directly to turning off the drive. If you want to
get the most power savings as possible you may consider skipping
Standby and going directly into Hibernation.

I hope this helps explain things a bit more. If you have any more
questions feel free to email me directly at Customer_Advocate DeleteThis @Dell.com.
Please include my first name (Todd) in the subject line so the message
can be routed to me as quickly as possible.

Todd

Customer Advocate
Dell, Inc.

Customer_Advocate DeleteThis @Dell.com
'Direct2Dell - Dell's Blog'
(http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/11/19/3648.aspx)


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DellCA